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Remove Unwanted Noise

December 17, 2019

Removing unwanted noise from recorded dialogue is always a tricky process. Over the past decades, we were introduced to a vast number of audio processors capable of doing this task. Some of them were more sophisticated and equipped with better algorithms than others. While searching for the best choice, we came across Waves WNS, which we’ll present in the following tutorial.

Cleaning unwanted noise with WNS

WNS Waves Noise Suppressor is a real-time noise reduction plugin for cleaning dialogue tracks. Unsurpassed for noise suppression on both indoor and location recordings with constant or modulating environment noise, WNS was precision-engineered to reduce noise from a dialogue, narration, voice-overs, and broadcast, with minimal artifacts. WNS features six adjustable bands and a large graphic display, which helps you identify problem frequencies. It also possesses an exclusive “Suggest” feature, which uses cutting-edge technology to analyze signal noise and then automatically adjusts the plugin parameters to provide an optimized starting point.

WNS in action

Let’s see it in action! As you can see and hear from the next example, we have taken a short voice recording of the famous movie called “Space Odyssey“ and placed it on a channel within the SoundBridge: DAW. The voice recording is a perfect example since it has a lot of background noise. So let us hear it:

Now let’s place the Waves WNS on the voice recording channel and have a look at its interface.

So, it has a straightforward interface. WNS will not surgically remove specific short-term interferences. On the contrary, it is a general noise suppressor that will preserve the dialogue and suppress unwanted signals simply and smoothly, with natural sound and minimal artifacts. Therefore, we see the minimal set of parameters like Threshold, Frequency range sliders, Smoothing slider, and Suggest option.

We recommend pressing the “Suggest” button first. Suggest takes all gain faders to the suggested suppression noise curve according to the WNS noise profile detector. After that, listen to the recording a couple more times and adjust the Gain faders a bit more until you reach the desired stage of background noise removal. In the end, let’s finish with the “Smoothing” tool. It controls the release behavior of noise suppression.

Finally, let’s hear how this voice recording sounds like after Waves WNS treating.